True designers understand the design isn’t about how something looks, but how it works.
Every product that is designed is usually intended to be built and when it’s built, the look and style usually follow from the design. Of course this doesn’t always happen, as some companies merely apply a style to a product without thinking about the design.
The screenshots below are a great example of being able to tell how much design – not engineering – went into the software on each mobile operating system.
Android’s default media player:
iPhone OS’s media player: